markl67

Wow, I'm glad I came across this post because looking for set ups is exactly what I've been doing for over a year now - I'm about ready to throw in the towel to be honest...

Yup, me too - thanks.

10 pages! Some of ya'll obviously have bigger brain than me!

My current job is being phased out which I've known about for many months. After that my plan is to trade full time, so to gain experience I've been watching the markets during the day for the past year or so when time allows, but have not tried to trade as I know it will only cause frustration/losses. I have an account at Tradestation, which I can't launch due to firewall restrictions at work. So, I leave my computer on at home during the day and gain access to it from work via a remote connection (LogMeIn.com).

Hey our country is 233 years old on July 4th - that's a fibonacci number! That's gotta mean something right!?!

I know I'm probably going to get smacked around for asking this, but why is there not one indicator or strategy that works everyday? Trading a certain way today may be successful, but will fail miserably tomorrow. For example, one day pivots are honored or respected and the next day they're ignored. It's almost like a select group of individuals know from one day to the next what's going to "happen".

I think this is an excellent question which I've thought about many times. Obviously it has to do with supply and demand. If more demand than supply, the price moves up until supply is available/willing and visa versa.

But in the example chart, it does appear that an initial large trade (buying volume) moved the price up which then caused the stock to pop up on radar screens creating interest, etc. So I guess in this case someone could have been screening for nothing but volume increase/spikes and found this stock.

Damn...nice presentation!

Yes, "tricks" are played on the DOM, but what I was talking about and the illustration shown by HAL9000 is actual time and sales.

Thanks - so watching actual filled orders is generally not useful in determining price movement? I still don't get the buy at bid and sell at ask. I work in "the industry" and that concept is so foreign to me.

I've been sim trading the es for a few months now and I have this nagging question which I can't seem to find the answer to. When trading stocks, you buy at the ask and sell at the bid which makes sense, but with futures it's the opposite, buy the bid and sell the ask...? If that's the case then why when I'm watching the time and sales screen does the price move up when a lot of "at ask" orders come across and the price moves down when a lot of "at bid" orders come across?

Jugador, I'm pretty much at the same stage you're at - just starting out. I know I'm stating the obvious here but any system will work on some days but not others. What I find myself doing is on the days when my system doesn't work (non-trending) is looking at other indicators or other time frames trying to find the holy grail that works all or most of the time. Funny because I know there's no such thing but somehow the search calls out to me. I've come to realize that although it's called day trading I must not get caught up too much on daily results and focus on the bigger picture (monthly) results. Over the course of a month does my system produce the results desired or needed. If yes, then just keep trading that system with extreme discipline and never stray from the rules.

Would currency trading fall under the purview of this proposed tax?

How do we get CNBC to announce this over the air - that would get some serious attention. Get Rick Santelli on it!

Which service are you using - the e-mini squawk? I'm just starting out but I have heard about this service from numerous sources.

I'm in the decision making process as well and so far my thinking is as long as it's a dedicated computer (as mentioned earlier) and has 3 gb RAM, decent pentium processor, and a graphics/video card to handle multiple monitors that should be enough for me - why the need for $4,000+ units...?

Just remember the tax ramifications of trading stocks/ETF's can be disadvantageous compared to trading futures.